All Abuzz: Suspended high-school volleyball player gains Twitter support

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 17, 2013 at 10:09 AM

A 17-year-old girl who was suspended from her volleyball team after she picked up a friend who had been drinking at a party is drawing a lot of support on Twitter. According to news reports, shortly after Erin Cox went to the party to get the friend, police arrived and arrested a dozen teenagers for underage drinking.

A 17-year-old girl who was suspended from her volleyball team after she picked up a friend who had been drinking at a party is drawing a lot of support on Twitter.

According to news reports, shortly after Erin Cox went to the party to get the friend, police arrived and arrested a dozen teenagers for underage drinking.

Cox wasn’t among those arrested, and a police officer confirmed that she hadn’t been drinking.

Still, officials at the North Andover (Mass.) High School suspended her for five volleyball games and took away her captain title.

The news sparked outrage on Twitter, where #istandwitherincox was trending yesterday.

A petition to the superintendent to have Cox reinstated on the volleyball team was started on Change.org; it had more than 4,000 signatures yesterday.

Some Twitter reactions:

• “Poor judgment call. Fix this by apologizing to Erin Cox. Students should not fear punishment because of doing the right thing.”

• “She did a good thing by picking up her friend. Had that friend driven home drunk, it would have been much worse.”

• “Why the heck would you punish a girl for doing the RIGHT thing!! She was helping a drunk friend, NOT drinking!!”